Product Description

Always On Reserve for GamerFinger Products

GamerFinger products will remain on reserve until further notice. What does that mean?

You can reserve any GamerFinger product, including caps, switches and optical PCB.

If we have your order contents in stock, we will ship it immediately.

If we are waiting for a GamerFinger restock shipment, we will ship your order as soon as it arrives.

You can cancel your reserve at any time.

Why are we doing this?

GamerFinger is a popular item that - as of this writing - is very hard to find. Most customers know of focusattack.com as a US reseller for this product.

At the moment, restocks of GamerFinger products is difficult to assess, due to inconsistency in shipping times by the company. Some can take just a week to ship, others can take many weeks even if the product is in stock at their warehouse. While we can usually accomodate other vendors, the inconsistency makes GamerFinger unique as a supplier.

We will continue to work with GamerFinger to improve their turnaround time for restock shipments. We are working to purchase enough additional stock to meet the high demand, and work around the inconsistencies.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer service team by email or click the Help or "?" icon to display a search box and form.

GamerFinger was the first company to introduce a game-changing approach to pushbuttons, utilizing a mechanical keyboard switch to customize both input force and feedback. The unique construction of the GamerFinger HBFS-G3 - a redesigned successor to the G2 - improves on the previous year's implementation to better fit in modern Fightsticks and arcade control panels.

Screwbutton Design, Compatibility with Snapbutton-friendly Panels

The HBFS-G3 by Gamerfinger incorporates the durability, sensitivity and adjustability of the incredibly popular Cherry MX™ mechanical keyboard microswitch into a unique, quiet 30mm pushbutton. Redesigned for a much smoother install, GamerFinger listened to some feedback regarding their incredibly firm tabs, and the difficulty to remove once inserted into a pushbutton hole. The included plastic ring will keep the pushbutton in place when installed in a wood control panel. The screwbutton ring will accomodate thicknesses up to .5 inches.

The screwbutton ring is also compatible with a metal panel. Unlike the G2 model, the ring screws all the way to the top of the rim. This allows you to screw to a thin metal panel without concern of a loose fit. Additionally, the ring is flush with the button rim, promoting an easier install into metal panel configurations than other screwbuttons.

Silent Operation

Should you still need or want to bottom out your button presses, each HBFS is outfitted with a foam pad that dampens the sound, offering up to 20dB less noise than stock Sanwa OBSF buttons.

10x more durable than Sanwa RG

Sanwa's RG microswitches are known to last longer than the standard SW-68 switches. Thanks to the mechanical key switch, HBFS possesses a much longer lifespan through use of mechanical switches - 50 million operations versus 500,000 - for about the same price as as the RG.

Compatible with .110 Quick Connectors. Easy Key Switch Swapping.

Replacing your buttons with HBFS-G3 pushbuttons is simple as swapping out Sanwa OBSF pushbuttons. No special wires or adapters are needed. Replacing the key switches is also quite easy, requiring little effort to open and pop out the switch.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Non MX switches, such as Gateron or Kailh tend to use thinner metal prongs, and may not always register inputs due to less capacitive contact. It is suggested on forums such as Reddit to use dabs of silver epoxy on the contacts within the GamerFinger's button.

Thanks to John Chang for sending us these tips, and to Reddit's teIeute for the original post on Reddit.

Specifications

Main Body: 29.5mm wide x 20mm tall. Fits in 30mm space.

Life (at 5 V, 1mA, no load): 50 million cycles

Operating Force: Dependent on the MX switch

Operation Travel: 1.2-2.0mm, dependent on the MX switch

Switches

Operating Force, Feel, and Different Key Switches Explained

The immediate benefit of incorporating the HBFS pushbutton into your gameplay is the ability to choose your preferred level of operating force, simply by switching out the mechanical key switches.

What does linear feel or tactile feel mean? Linear feel means that the feel is consistent from the moment you press down on the button. Tactile feel provides a bit of feedback upon actuation. Operating Force means how hard you have to push the button and how hard it will push back when depressed.The g45g, for example, represents a metric unit of force.

Swapping Key Switches to Adjust Operating Force and Feedback

Because the HBFS uses mechanical key switches, you can purchase other switches that offer a higher operating force, or a different feel. Each are color-coded based on their characteristics:

Cherry MX Red is a 45g linear feel key switch. It takes very little effort to press the button down. The feeling is quite unique, very soft yet responsive. These also offer no audible click when pressed down, unless you force it to "bottom out" -- pushing the button all the way down to its plastic contacts.

Cherry MX™Speed Silver

Cherry MX™ Silver "linear feel" is an input speed evolution from the red MX. Both silent and linear, the travel distance to actuation is greatly reduced from 2mm to 1.2mm with total travel of just 3.4mm. There is no audible click feedback.

Cherry MX™ Black

Cherry MX™ Black "linear feel" is both silent and linear, meaning that from actuation to fully pressing it, it feels the same. These require 60g operating force, so it is likely that you will press all the way down to activate the button command. These are great for those who feel that Sanwa microswitches are too sensitive or tend to activate unwanted commands simply by brushing across the buttons.

Cherry MX™ Brown

Cherry MX™ Brown "soft tactile feel" sends a slight bump as feedback, but no click. This is great for those who want the feedback, but no sound. The feedback tells you when the command was sent to the console or PC. It has a softer feel than cherry MX Blue, but at 55g requires just a bit more force to actuate the switch.

Cherry MX™ Blue

Cherry MX™ Blue "click tactile feel" sends a little bump to your fingers, and has an audible click the moment the button command is sent to the console or PC. The feedback can speed up your execution because you do not have to press the button all the way down to activate the button command. The diagram at right shows how the blue MX switch works. You can see that the switch activates at the halfway point -- the moment the white piece snaps down. 60g means that a bit more force is needed to push down.

Tactile Feedback. Faster Actuation. Silent Operation. Light Touch.

The Razer orange stem mechanical key switch sends a little bump to your fingers, but unlike the Razer MX Green Stem 50g Tactile Feedback Mechanical Switch, the operation is quiet - no audible click is provided. At 45g force to actuate, the Razer orange stem mechanical key switch is sensitive enough to satisfy those who desire immediate input and a light touch. Actuation distance is 1.9mm, just under the 2mm present in the Cherry Red MX mechanical switch. This enables a faster actuation time.

Tactile Feedback. Faster Actuation.

"Click tactile feel" sends a little bump to your fingers, and has an audible click the moment the button command is sent to the console or PC. The Razer Green 50g mechanical switch offers this kind of feedback, along with a shorter actuation point than the leading mechanical key microswitch. Actuation distance is 1.9mm, just under the 2mm present in the Cherry Red MX mechanical switch. This enables a faster actuation time. At 50g, the green mechanical switch uses a bit more operating force to press down, which some prefer over feather-sentivity of lighter force microswitches.

24 vs 30mm

When processing orders, a frequent mistake we found among new players is choosing the wrong size for action buttons, such as punch and kick.

Within the fighting game genre, Japanese arcade buttons commonly consist of two diameter sizes: 24 millimeter and 30 milllimeter (mm). In most configurations, 30mm represents your action button. These are front facing, appearing most prominent on your Fightstick control panel. Option button, such as "Start", "Select", or more recently "Option", "Touch", or "Share" are usually 24mm.

Below is a visual representation of a common Fightstick control panel. Throughout this article, we will mark 24mm in green, and 30mm in Orange.

Checking the Proper Size

Another way that players can misinterpret the pushbutton size is by measuring the pushbutton plunger. Have a look at the diagram at right.

The plunger - the part that you press down to represent an input - is 25mm or a bit smaller in most 30mm pushbuttons. Often this leads to the conclusion that one needs a 24mm button and not 30mm.

Similarly measuring the button rim can lead to confusion, as it is intentionally larger than the button hole it is placed in. You don't want to use these measurements. Instead, review the button housing diameter, or the hole the button will be placed in. You can do this with a caliper - a digital caliper is often quite helpful for this and other arcade-related projects.

Control Panel Configuration

Most Fightsticks from MadCatz, Hori, Qanba, and similar will use these two sizes. How the buttons are used will depend on the model joystick that you own. Over time, we'll provide example configurations for specific popular Fightstick models and arcade cabinets using the color key for 24mm (green) and 30mm (orange). We'll also expand the key for future models if another size is introduced, and we offer for sale.

Great buttons, make sure you use the correct switches

I ordered these with Cherry Blues and they worked great. A word of warning to check the pin length on any off brand mx style switch though. I tested Kailh Box whites which work in most MX style pcbs, so I assumed it would work in these as well. I found out the pin length on mx switches is 3.3 mm on both sides while on my kailh box switches the pin length turned out be 2.85mm on one side and 3.3mm on the other, resulting in the buttons not working.Will
on
Mar 7th 2019

These may be the best buttons you ever use, once you get them working correctly.

Some background: I have the IST Makestick case, which doesn't exactly support snap-in buttons. They'll fit, but the tabs on the sides of the plunger don't fit securely because the total thickness of the panel is just slightly too much to get them to fit in all the way. As such, snap in buttons will work on the Makestick case until they don't At which point, they'll come flying out as you're playing. That's no fun.

So I tried every type of screw in button I could find: Seimitsu and Crown. The Crown buttons felt weird and unresponsive, and even managed to stick a bit out of the box. The Seimitsus were good enough, until one day they weren't and started sticking too.

Desperate for a solution, I found these for sale here on Focus Attack. I'd heard good things about them and figured I'd give them a shot. I bought Cherry Reds since I like lower activation force for buttons.

I installed them, plugged in my stick, only to find that most of the buttons didn't work at all! That couldn't be right. So I disassembled every button, reseated every switch, and tried again until they all eventually worked. Then I tried playing, and found that my button inputs weren't exactly what they should be. Missed links, random negative edging, and a myriad of other issues plagued my experience with these buttons.

I figured that this couldn't be the fault of the buttons themselves, so I ordered new Cherry Reds. After installing them, I found that I had mostly the same issues as before. So I lubed the switches, and it kind of fixed my problems. That same day I took my stick to a local and had other people use it. They must be much more rough on buttons than I am because I felt a noticeable difference between my inner six and outer two buttons after that. I then swapped the outer two so that they'd get more use and they eventually started to play nice, though it took several rounds of lubing the switches and mashing frantically on every last button to get them to the point where they respond mostly as they should. I even had to switch sticks for top 8 at Frosty Faustings due to these buttons not cooperating.

Bottom line? Don't expect these things to act as they should out of the box. Your mileage with these will almost certainly vary because there's so many factors in any given application. I'm glad that these buttons do seem to finally be working as they should be (keeping my fingers crossed that they'll stay this way), however, I'm a little upset that it took weeks of tinkering for them to get here. It's a bit misleading to market these as a drop in replacement for Sanwa OBSFs because OBSFs almost always work fine out of the box. Still, I can only hope that someone at FA or GamerFinger reads this and takes into consideration how annoying it is to have to break in such an essential controller component.quash
on
Feb 4th 2019

Tech Corner: The GamerFinger HBFS-30-G3 Pushbutton

GamerFinger is the first company to offer an arcade pushbutton with swappable mechanical keyboard microswitches. This gives your the flexibility to play with varying force and feedback, tailoring to your preferences. This episode covers how to assemble the HBFS-30-G3 screwbutton, swap in and out Cherry MX keyboard microswitches, and tips on installation.
Products mentioned in this video:
GamerFinger Brand pushbuttons - https://www.focusattack.com/gamerfinger/
Cherry MX mechanical keyboard microswitches - https://www.focusattack.com/brands/Cherry.html